A Movie Review from the Frumpy Zone

I finally went to see the movie Eat, Pray, Love and of course, since I read the book, I was disappointed.

I also found that Julia Roberts’ upper lip was disturbingly fat and I just couldn’t concentrate when every time I looked at the screen her upper lip was sticking out. She looked like she was recovering from a horrible bee sting. Hollywood ladies, please accept that not everyone has the natural Jolie lips…and that’s OK.

Anyway, after I got past the ‘lip’, I realized that anyone who was seeing the movie without having read the book was going to get bored real fast. Hell, I got bored a few times reading the book too, but the messages were so profound that I persevered.

Then I realized that something else was bothering me. I was jealous. I mean, here’s Liz, a WRITER, who gets to travel to exotic places to do her job and she’s whining about her husband – welcome to marriage. Then she gets to run away from her life to ‘find herself,’ in three different exotic locations. Of course, I have no desire to travel to India or Indonesia, and I can’t afford to gain any more weight so Italy’s OUT. (My three locations would be Ireland, New Zealand and Hawaii.)

But my criticism does stem from envy. I’m sure I would learn a hell of a lot about myself if I spent a year traveling around the world –ALONE! But with three kids, that’s not going to happen for at least 13 more years.

Liz learned so much about herself…this I got from the book, in the movie she still seems like a mess to me – maybe it was the lip. I know that I could never do what she has done, particularly the whole praying/meditating for hours on end. I am truly frightened of what lies within and beyond. I also couldn’t live in a third world country, without air conditioning and bugs everywhere. I’m just not cut out for that.

I did ‘get’ the book and the message it contained. I have a feeling many women are going to be disturbed by it like I was. It makes you question the choices you made in your own life and it shows you that ultimately, if you don’t like the life you have, you CAN CHOOSE to change it!

I started this post thinking that it takes a lot of courage to just drop everything and start your life over. However, I’m wondering if perhaps it takes more courage to work on your issues within the confines of the life you chose. Maybe I should write my own version of the book, I think I’ll call it: Eat,Sleep…Buy Bigger Pants.